Quality Assured

For a very long time Tamil Cinema had been accused of one thing - nothing but masala in Tamil Cinema.

But some films is the recent past have been busy crowning clearing this blemish and crowning it with glory. And that's the subject of this article.

Films like Pandavar Bhoomi, Nandha, Azhagi, Kannathil Muthamittal have trended beyond the routine masala formulae and have turned out to be beautiful poetries on screen. This is a very pleasant surprise indeed.

Even before 'Pandavar Bhoomi' was released, people had foreseen how the movie would be. Reason? Charan! Though there was an 'O Samba' song, even that was made in such a way that it could be seen by the family audience. The film had come just when there was a longing for a scenic village based story. In a story that had love and social awareness interwoven with each other, a surprise factor was the lead pair of hero & heroine addressing each other as 'Thozaa Thozaa' in a song.

'Nandha' was as revolutionary as 'Sethu' was. The mother killing her own son by poisoning his food is a hard to digest. But, Bala's unique approach and the fact that the approach had reached the audience is a heartening fact for other directors. The Surya-Laila love track which was inserted somewhere in the story is extremely realistic. The film lacked entertainment elements, but the audience still watched the movie. A huge victory for Bala.

One could say that 'Azhagi' was step in a direction that Tamil Cinema had not taken before. Movies are not made based on novels. They don't suit the 'Laalaaku dol dappi maa' requirements. But, Thangar Bachchaan is a director who had made a critically acclaimed movie out of his own novel that he'd written based on his own experience. If Vivek's comedy turned out to be an irritant, it just goes on to prove the kind of involvement that Dhanalakshmi & Shanmugam had created in the minds of the audience. The portrayal of school days of the lead characters took the audience on a nostalgic trip down their memory lanes to their own adolescence. This was the greatest acknowledgement of Bachchan's success that the audience had given him.

'Kannathil Muthamittal' is a beautiful piece of poetry. There is a 10-minute love story. Rest of the movie is purely a 9 year old girl's search for her biological mother, and the girl's yearnings. Songs have been blended naturally with the scenes and dialogues - a new technique. Mixing LTTE struggle and mother-child separation & anguish was a smart move.

The film is an 'in-your-face' reply to people who insist that movies have to be made only a certain way. Keerthana's acting & 'Sujatha's dialogues have contributed further in bringing the movie so close to reality.

All these are like soothing balm on those good souls that love good films. These four films have revived out hopes that amidst all the butchery that's happening in Tamil Cinema, there still are some Red Cross rescuers. It's only these people who are going to lead Tamil Cinema into its next stage.


Quiet a few Hindi films are made exclusively targeting the Hindi speaking NRI audience. And, these films have done extremely well. Similarly, right now, Tamil cinema has found a new target audience too - the Srilankan Tamil brothers & sisters. The new success formula.

'Thenali', 'Kaatrukkenna Veli',' Nanda' and 'Kannathil Muthamittal' - these four are films that had incorporated Srilankan Tamil & Srilankan Tamils in their stories. These films have an elaborate Srilankan accented Tami and they portray the Eelam issues. So, Tamil world over have been pretty unanimous about watching these films. It has been found that the encouragement these films had received abroad is motivated mainly by the desire of these ex-pats, to hear their tongue again. Now, there's a theory freely floating over Kollywood that movies based on Srilankan Tamils wouldn't incur losses.

 


  
Emotions ran high at the function organized by Kamal & Sarathkumar to honour 'Aachi' Manorama.

Everybody began singing her songs, one after the other. A 1000 watt smile lit up her face when Kamal song her 'Muthu Kulikka Vaarehalla'.

"You have put me on a such a high pedestal. I feel like I've achieved my janma saaphalyam (italics) today", the Veteran actress spoke these words straight from the heart. The words had touched the hearts of each & everybody who'd heard them that day.

Most of the stars, including Kamal, Sarathkumar, Simran, Mumtaj, Meena, Sangavi, Radhika, Monal & others who didn't turn up at the funeral procession of 'Shivaji' Ganeshan, had attended this function. To wash away their sins, maybe.

 
  
Pandiyarajan's back, as usual, borrowing the name of his new movie from the lyrics of a song. This time, the song is 'Kannum Kannum Kollai Adithall'.

And, wonder of wonders, his heroine is going to be the TV actress Lavanya. Abhitha, who hasn't had a film for quiet sometime now, is also in this movie.

 

 


The Bhoomi actress is very attached to love. The actress, who was formerly basking in the love of Sooriya director, has now fallen head over heel for her 'Roja-crowd' co-star. Kodambakkam inside sources (spies) tell us that the actress is busy '1-4-3'ing him.

The hero seems to be treating her like a friend. It's the heroine who's truly-madly-deeply is love. Some very interesting incidents are anticipated, say the spies.

This is a tussle & love affair. The Oscar hero had intervened in the 'Sim' actress' love affair to help that little girl solve her problems. But now, the attempt had boomeranged in a different colour & shape. The Oscar hero is an extremely angry man after reports appeared in a local Tamil movie magazine that he'd married the actress himself. But, he has decided to adopt the Gandhi principle of Ahimsa & silence, in order to avoid further publicity over that report.

There was a story, couple of months ago, that the "Heart" director who specialized in making love stories had gotten himself involved with the 'tiny tot' heroine of his home-production film "Love Bacteria".

Now there is not a word about it, because, it turns out that the originator of those rumors was the director himself. Now that the film is due for release, stories about the 'affair' are going to be revived again. The Big Idea is-the publicity that this brings in might help the film.

Oh, Lord in Heaven!

It's a case of life imitating art for the hero of the bus route film. The dual heroine trend continues in real life too. A tough competition is on between the 'Pallankuzhi' heroine and Ms Chennai. Right now, the hero favors the former.

However it goes, one thing is certain - in the film he was the one pleading the lady to love him. (love pannu!) but in reality?

 

 

 
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